Michel
Pierre Michel
Publications
OBJECTIVE: Quality of life (QoL) measurements are considered important outcome measures both for research on multiple sclerosis (MS) and in clinical practice. Computerized adaptive testing (CAT) can improve the precision of measurements made using QoL instruments while reducing the burden of testing on patients. Moreover, a cross-cultural approach is also necessary to guarantee the wide applicability of CAT. The aim of this preliminary study was to develop a calibrated item bank that is available in multiple languages and measures QoL related to mental health by combining one generic (SF-36) and one disease-specific questionnaire (MusiQoL).
METHODS: Patients with MS were enrolled in this international, multicenter, cross-sectional study. The psychometric properties of the item bank were based on classical test and item response theories and approaches, including the evaluation of unidimensionality, item response theory model fitting, and analyses of differential item functioning (DIF). Convergent and discriminant validities of the item bank were examined according to socio-demographic, clinical, and QoL features.
RESULTS: A total of 1992 patients with MS and from 15 countries were enrolled in this study to calibrate the 22-item bank developed in this study. The strict monotonicity of the Cronbach's alpha curve, the high eigenvalue ratio estimator (5.50), and the adequate CFA model fit (RMSEA = 0.07 and CFI = 0.95) indicated that a strong assumption of unidimensionality was warranted. The infit mean square statistic ranged from 0.76 to 1.27, indicating a satisfactory item fit. DIF analyses revealed no item biases across geographical areas, confirming the cross-cultural equivalence of the item bank. External validity testing revealed that the item bank scores correlated significantly with QoL scores but also showed discriminant validity for socio-demographic and clinical characteristics.
CONCLUSION: This work demonstrated satisfactory psychometric characteristics for a QoL item bank for MS in multiple languages. This work may offer a common measure for the assessment of QoL in different cultural contexts and for international studies conducted on MS.
BACKGROUND:
Adherence to medication is a major issue in bipolar disorder. Non-planning impulsivity, defined as a lack of future orientation, has been demonstrated to be the main impulsivity domain altered during euthymia in bipolar disorder patients. It was associated with comorbidities.
METHODS:
To investigate relationship between adherence to medication and non-planning impulsivity, we included 260 euthymic bipolar patients. Adherence to medication was evaluated by Medication Adherence Rating Scale and non-planning impulsivity by Barrat Impulsiveness Scale. Univariate analyses and linear regression were used. We conducted also a path analysis to examine whether non-planning impulsivity had direct or indirect effect on adherence, mediated by comorbidities.
RESULTS:
Adherence to medication was correlated with non-planning impulsivity, even after controlling for potential confounding factors in linear regression analysis (Beta standardized coefficient = 0.156; p = 0.015). Path analysis demonstrated only a direct effect of non-planning impulsivity on adherence to medication, and none indirect effect via substance use disorders and anxiety disorders.
LIMITATIONS: Our study is limited by its cross-sectional design and adherence to medication was assessed only by self-questionnaire.
CONCLUSIONS:
Higher non-planning impulsivity is associated with low medication adherence, without an indirect effect via comorbidities.
OBJECTIVE: The objectives of this study were: 1) to describe the psychiatric comorbidities in adult individuals with high potential; 2) to assess self-esteem and quality of life in comparison with general population; 3) to study the relationships between intelligent quotient (IQ), self-esteem, psychiatric comorbidities and quality of life.
METHODS: This cross-sectional study was conducted in the psychiatric department of a public university hospital (Marseille, France). An outpatient hospital service has been specifically opened to test intelligence since 2012. During a period of six months, it was proposed to all the major individuals with high intellectual potential to receive a psychiatric evaluation using the Mini International Neuropsychiatric Interview (MINI) and to complete self-report questionnaires assessing depression (Beck scale), anxiety (STAI), self-esteem (Rosenberg scale) and quality of life (SF-36). Relationships between IQ, self-esteem, psychiatric comorbidities and quality of life were analyzed using a Bayesian path analysis.
RESULTS: Twenty-eight subjects were included, 8 had an IQ between 115 and 130, and 20 had an IQ>130. Fifty-seven percent of individuals had generalized anxiety, 21.4% a current major depressive episode, and 75% a past major depressive episode. Subjects had a low self-esteem and quality of life levels significantly lower than those in the French general population. Subjects with higher self-esteem levels had more depressive (β=0.726, P<0.001) and anxiety (β=0.335, P<0.001) disorders, associated with lower quality of life levels (β=-0.447, P<0.001 and β=-0.276, P=0.012), suggesting that self-esteem was defensive and inadequate.
CONCLUSION: Our study found a high frequency of psychiatric disorders associated with low levels of self-esteem and quality of life. A psychological treatment focusing on self-esteem may have a beneficial effect on anxiety, depression and quality of life.
OBJECTIVE: We aimed to investigate the brain functional substrate underlying relationships between metabolic syndrome (MetS) and cognitive impairment in schizophrenia.
METHODS: In this cross-sectional study, we collected socio-demographic, clinical, anthropometric, blood, and cognition data and performed brain 99mTc-ECD-SPECT imaging of cerebral blood flow in patients with schizophrenia. Patients were grouped according to the absence or presence of MetS. Whole-brain perfusion SPECTs were compared at voxel level between these two groups, and voxel-wise interregional correlation was performed to compare functional connectivity (voxel level significance of p<0.005, uncorrected; p<0.05 for the cluster, uncorrected; using SPM8). A structural equation model (SEM) was applied to examine the relationships between brain perfusion, connectivity between brain areas, and cognition.
RESULTS: Of the 55 patients, 17 had MetS. They performed significantly worse than patients without MetS on tests of executive functions (processing speed p=0.005 for TMT-A; and reactive flexibility p=0.014 for TMT-B), attention (D2 attention task p=0.007), and memory (California Verbal Learning Test p=0.039). In comparison to patients without MetS, those with MetS exhibited significant hypoperfusion within the left orbital prefrontal cortex and greater functional connectivity from this left frontal cluster within the left insula and middle/superior frontal gyrus. SEM confirmed the effect on executive functions of brain hypoperfusion and of increased connectivity, suggesting possible compensatory networks in patients with MetS.
CONCLUSION: Our study identifies the brain functional impact of MetS on cognition, with orbital prefrontal impairment and possible compensatory networks.
RATIONALE AND OBJECTIVE: The relationship between clinically effective antipsychotic drugs in obsessive-compulsive disorders (OCD) and binding affinities to cloned dopamine and serotonin receptor subtypes was analyzed in an effort to clarify the contribution of individual receptor subtypes to medication response.
METHODS: Meta-analysis was used to update previous meta-analyses of effectiveness data of add-on antipsychotic drugs to selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) in OCD. Twelve previously analyzed randomized controlled trials (RCTs) and one new RCT were included. We performed a metaregression using a mixed-effect model to examine the association between antipsychotic's effectiveness and receptor affinity.
RESULTS: A total of 5 treatment arms obtained from 13 RCTs (431 patients) were included in our study. The results of our metaregression showed a significant association between D2 and D3 dopamine receptor affinities and effectiveness in OCD (respectively, slope = -0.36, p = 0.01; and slope = -0.50, p = 0.01) whereas other dopamine receptors and serotonin receptors were not significantly associated.
CONCLUSIONS: These observations suggest that increasing D2 and D3 dopamine receptor binding affinities enhances antipsychotics' effectiveness in obsessive-compulsive disorders.
Statistical modeling conference on the quality of life measurements of the French National Platform of Quality of Life and Cancer Faculty of Science in Luminy, Marseille, France, 12-13 September 2013 The French National Platform of Quality of Life and Cancer and the statistical team of the Mathematical Institute of Luminy undertook a successful first conference addressing the statistical challenges of measuring the quality of life in the field of oncology. More than 15 presentations were made over a 2-day period by the Faculty of Sciences in Luminy. The conference managed to assemble participants from different disciplines, such as mathematics and statistics, public health, epidemiology and psychology, to debate the key statistical and methodological issues of quality of life measurement and analysis. Three main topics were covered in this conference: the treatment of missing data, the development of item banking and computerised adaptive testing and the detection/understanding of response shift.
BACKGROUND:
The effectiveness of repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) is well established while studies of maintenance TMS are lacking. We aim here to determine whether maintenance is associated to a decrease in the relapse rate of depression, following successful acute treatment.
METHODS:
We enrolled 59 consecutive patients with pharmacoresistant depression who have responded (>50% decrease in symptom severity) up to 6 weeks of acute TMS treatment. These patients received either 20 weeks of maintenance TMS (n=37) or no additional TMS treatment (n=22). We performed propensity adjusted-analysis to examine the association between the relapse rate over this 20-week period and maintenance TMS. Propensity analysis eliminated differences in baseline characteristics between patient with and without maintenance TMS and approximated the conditions of random site-of-treatment assignment.
RESULTS:
At 20 weeks, relapse rate was significantly different between the two groups (p=0.004, propensity analysis): 14 patients in the maintenance TMS group (37.8%) vs. 18 in the non-maintenance TMS group (81.8%), with an adjusted Hazard Ratio (HR)=0.288 (0.124-0.669).
CONCLUSIONS:
Maintenance TMS was associated with a significantly lower relapse rate in patients with pharmacoresistant depression in routine practice among responders.
The Scale to Assess Unawareness in Mental Disorder (SUMD) is widely used in clinical trials and epidemiological studies but more rarely in clinical practice because of its length (74 items). In clinical practice, it is necessary to provide shorter instruments. The aim of this study was to investigate the validity and reliability of the abbreviated version of the SUMD.
The Scale to Assess Unawareness of Mental Disorder (SUMD) is one of the most widely used instruments to measure insight into mental disorders. The aim of this study was to review all studies using the SUMD in the last 20 years. We performed an electronic search of MEDLINE using PubMed to identify all relevant studies published from 1993 to 2012. The following data were extracted from each article: characteristics of the SUMD (version, rating scale, scoring, and item/dimension used), methodological aspects (country, language, subject inclusion criteria, and sample size), and statistical methods to analyse insight. Of the 133 articles screened, 100 studies were included in the review. Fifty-two studies were published over the past five years. The SUMD was rarely used in its entirety, and the use of selected items or subscales was heterogeneous across studies. The studies also varied in terms of response modalities and in the use of 3- or 5-point Likert scales. The calculation of insight scores was highly variable and included the following: treating items as categorical or continuous variables, separate analysis of individual items, items expressed in terms of the sum total or the mean scores, and a range of score values used to define insight. This paper provides a systematic review of studies using the SUMD and reveals important differences in the versions used, the methods of calculation, and the interpretation of scores across studies. The use of a modified SUMD may compromise the psychometric properties of the scale, lead to erroneous conclusions, and prevents comparison of results across studies. Our review underlines the need for the standardised use of the SUMD.
While the physical disability aspect of multiple sclerosis (MS) is of great importance, quality of life (QoL) measurements are being considered increasingly important with regard to evaluating disease progression, treatment, and the management of care provided to MS patients. Despite the acknowledged need to consider QoL issues, QoL assessment remains underutilized in clinical practice. These issues should be explored and understood to promote the use of measuring QoL in MS clinical practice. We explore the difficulties for clinicians: choosing and determining the most appropriate QoL measure and how to best integrate QoL measurements into clinical practice. This paper discusses several avenues to provide to clinicians arguments of the clinical relevance and accuracy of QoL instruments and ultimately to enhance the use of QoL measures in clinical practice for MS patients.
